376 FUTURE PROSPECTS OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA part in 



work it, and except for limited local- purposes it is valueless. 

 Some of the tribes collect grains of hematite from streams, 

 and smelt it by charcoal in furnaces of the " Catalan " type. 

 But except in a few places, the native smiths cannot compete 

 even in their own villages with iron from Birmingham, brought 

 up country by trading caravans in the form of wire. I am 

 indebted to my friend Professor Tate, late of the Royal College 

 of Science, for assays of three iron ores collected by Mr. Scott 

 Elliot in Usoga, which yielded respectively 61.69, 41.08 and 

 43.21 per cent of iron. But the richest ore contains so much 

 phosphorus and sulphur that it is useless, and Mr. Tate states 

 that the poorest ore is really the most valuable, as it might be 

 used as an ochre. 



The second factor on which the successful administration 

 of East Africa depends is the supply of native labour, and the 

 outlook here is not generally considered hopeful ; the contempt 

 in which men like Burton and Cameron held the African, and 

 their failure to make their men work properly, still influences 

 English opinion. We are repeatedly reminded that the 

 African will not work, and cannot be made to work, except 

 in slavery. For my own part, I take a more favourable view 

 of the prospect, and consider it definitely good. 



It has been repeatedly shown that the possibility of 

 inducing the African to work is simply a question of tact and 

 management. The average Bantu is lazy, but he likes to be 

 comfortable. His vanity is easily roused, and his capacity for 

 imitation is marvellous. Few people can be taught to want 

 more easily, and his good-nature and great physical strength 

 render him a most devoted and useful servant. His habits of 

 indolence, it is true, are deeply ingrained, and cannot be over- 

 come at once. Stanley's first efforts to make the natives of 

 the Congo undertake regular work were failures. But he 

 succeeded at last, and the Congo Free State has now over 

 1 00,000 native porters in its service, with an army of several 

 thousand men enlisted from some tribes which were formerly 

 the most degraded and ferocious savages in Africa. On the 

 other side of the Continent a similar success has been gained, 

 though on a smaller scale. Mr. Ainsworth at Machakos has so 

 won the confidence of the Wa-kamba, that he has entrusted 

 them with the defence of the fort, and the postal service for 



